Bug: UI says conversations not started, when the conversation did start

[jpshackelford]

All of the conversations below started a scheduled plugin job successfully. The conversations do show in my list of archived conversations, but they aren't listed in the UI.

[jpshackelford]

Working Theory

This analysis was generated by an AI agent (OpenHands) on behalf of the user.

Summary

The automation runs show "Conversation not created" in the Activity Log even though the conversations ran successfully and are visible in the archived conversations list.

Root Cause

The preset scripts (sdk_main.py for both prompt and plugin presets) never call workspace.register_conversation() to tell the workspace what conversation ID to include in the completion callback.

Technical Details

1. The OpenHandsCloudWorkspace class (in openhands-workspace package) has:

   • A register_conversation(conversation_id) method that stores the conversation ID in _conversation_id
   • A _send_completion_callback() method (called by __exit__) that includes conversation_id in the callback payload only if _conversation_id is not None

2. The preset scripts (openhands/automation/presets/prompt/sdk_main.py and openhands/automation/presets/plugin/sdk_main.py):

   • Create a Conversation object with the workspace
   • Run the conversation successfully
   • Never call workspace.register_conversation(str(conversation.id))

3. Result: The callback is sent with conversation_id: None, so the UI shows "Conversation not created"

Proposed Fix

After creating the conversation in both preset scripts, add:

conversation = Conversation(
    agent=agent,
    workspace=workspace,
    callbacks=[event_callback],
    delete_on_close=False,
)
assert isinstance(conversation, RemoteConversation)

# ADD THIS LINE - Register conversation ID with workspace for callback
workspace.register_conversation(str(conversation.id))

print(f"  conversation created: {type(conversation).__name__}")

Files to Update

1. openhands/automation/presets/prompt/sdk_main.py (around line 289)
2. openhands/automation/presets/plugin/sdk_main.py (around line 301)

Alternative Fix Location

The fix could also be done in the Conversation class itself to automatically register with the workspace if one is provided. However, this would require changes to the openhands-sdk package.

[jpshackelford]

Additional Analysis: Alternative Tracking

This analysis was generated by an AI agent (OpenHands) on behalf of the user.

Conversations are automatically tagged with automationrunid={run_id} at creation time. This means we could potentially query for conversations by tag instead of relying on the callback.

Why Watchdog Can't Help

The watchdog only processes runs after they exceed their timeout (default 10 min), so it's not viable for timely conversation lookup:

Event	Timing
timeout_at set	started_at + 10 min (default)
Watchdog scan	Every 60 seconds
Watchdog processes run	Only when timeout_at < now

Recommendation

Option A (fix callback) is the primary fix - add workspace.register_conversation() in preset scripts.

Option B (tag lookup) could supplement as a fallback, but would need to be:

• On-demand when UI fetches run details, OR
• In the callback handler if conversation_id is missing

Not in the watchdog, which runs too late.